Heading to the HOMELAND

Frank Zappa
I was a little aghast that one of Vilnius's claims to fame was a Frank Zappa memorial monument. I had to check it out.. There it was in the parking lot of the art school... Not a big thing, but concept of it is huge. Frank Zappa never visited Lithuania, nor had any affiliation with it. How it came about though, is that the political underground in Lithuania was quite strong before Perestroika. Lithuania was the founding player for the break down of the old Soviet Union as we knew it. The political activists were apparently all Frank Zappa fans. Once they turfed out the Russians in 1992, the political activists gained power in Lithuainia. One of their first acts to recognize the efforts of these freedom fighting activists was to recognize their pop culture hero. Apparently there was a lot of flack at the time from the older generation who viewed Frank Zappa as an anarchist, and they did not want to have a new symbol of freedom to be an anarchist... The two factions compromised and instead of giving the Frank Zappa monument a prominent location, they hid in a parking lot behind a three story building...Interesting, if you are or ever have been a Frank Zappa fan

Pretty Much The Same
Well, if one was looking for dramatic landscapes and vistas, I don't think this is the corner of the world to look. Since leaving Warsaw, through northern Poland, and now central and western Latvia, the terrain is pretty much the same. Gently rolling hills, sometimes forest, sometimes hay country, sometimes what looks like fertile farmland.. Lots of creeks and rivers. Broad leaf forests mixed up with evergreen forests. Normally if a country has a “natural” border between itself and it's geographic neighbour, there is a geographic change. Considering the different languages between countries, I wonder what criteria were used to establish the border. Geographically, everything is pretty much the same.

I read it on the internet..
I had spent a couple of hours yesterday evening, researching on the internet as to how to get to Kladiepa from Vilnius Considering I like trains, I opted for that option.. I found the schedule online. Trains run daily, leaving Vilnius at 9:25. It sounded perfect. I did sleep in a bit today, but still had time for a shower and breakie before I hoisted my pack on my back and trundled off to the train station. Not a long walk, maybe 3 km. When I got there, I got some Lithuanian money from the ATM, and headed for the ticket wicket... Lo and behold, no train today. The agent's English was very poor, and we all know that I do not speak a word of Lithuanian,. She tried to explain something to me, but it was definitely lost in translation. She did get it across that I would have to take a bus, and showed me where the bus station was. Fortunately it was only a couple of hundred yards away. I managed to get a ticket on the 10:35 bus.... So another lesson in life.. Don't believe everything you read on the internet..

Small Cultures
It has been amazing me how in this day and age of globalization, how a small country can maintain it's language and culture..Although I am not good with languages, the history of language and culture amaze me.. Talking to people, it is very common for them to say that sometimes things are very strange in Lithuania. I am not savvy as to why they seem so different, but I am guessing that there is an inherient desire of the culture and people to be “differnt” and not sell their language and culture down the road. Here are a few examples of how they strive, sometimes beyond normal reason to remain different.

Taxi..
Anywhere I have traveled in the world, this is one word that is universal. There are not many words that I have found that are universally understood in all languages. In fact, I can only think of two. My nurse friends have told me that “puke” is one of them. No matter what language a client in a hospital speaks, they understand the word. The other word is “taxi”. In Lithuania, it sort of rings true. The emphasis is on “sort of”. When spoken the word sounds the same.. But when written, they had to change the spelling.. How do they spell it here? TAksI. Why would they bother? Pizza is another one.. The world over knows it at pizza.. here it is “pica”.

Toilet bowls.
Again in my travels I have seen an awful lot of toilet bowls. Why a country would strive for an identity of unique toilet bowls, I have no idea. From the outside, a Lithuanian toilet bowl looks pretty much the same as a toilet bowl anywhere else in the world. Tank on the back. Porcelain bowl. Seat cover is much the same.. Lid, and sitting seat that lifts up for boys to pee. But inside the toilet bowl is definitely different. The “exit” from the bowl is located at the back, just like everywhere else. The difference here is that the exit hole is absolutely huge. I am sure a fella could put his whole foot into it. Do they need it for huge power dumps from all the greasy foods they eat here? Did they establish a parliamentary committee to design such a bowl?

Traffic lights
Traffic lights are another fairly uniform thing around the globe.. Sure there are differncces in shape and configuration Some vertical, some horizontal Some red at the top,green at the bottom. Red on the left, green on the right. The key thing is that the function of them are all the same. Red means stop. Green means go. Orange means it will soon turn to green. That is pretty much how it is here in Lithuainia, but with an added twist. The light turns orange briefly when the light is turning from red to green. The same holds true for the pedestrian walk lights. By the way, they do not use the normal walk,/do not walk pedestrian signs here. They use a full size traffic light that is for the use of the pedestrians only. So for a pedestrian, we have
1.Solid green, that means safe to walk.
2.Flashing green that means you had better hustle your way across the street.
3.Orange which means that you had better be off the street.
4.Red which means do not walk.
5.Orange again which means... well, I am not sure what it means..

I have never seen this before, and I do find it a little odd. Is it there to wake up sleepy pedestrians. Again did they have a parliamentary committee to establish this protocol? Did they hold a referendum on it? It seems just a bit preposterous to change these types of rules, just to maintain a culture that is different from anyone else... I should know in a few days if Latvia followed suit.

Thwarted.....
Surprisingly there are very few local restaurants that serve “Baltic” food. Rumour has it that the locals prefer to eat at home, and when they go out they want to eat something different than the food they typically prepare at home... I finally lucked onto a little place today for lunch.. I had dumplings with fritters... Oh so yum... little sausage meat balls inside the dough, slathered in sour cream and little bits of fried bacon sprinkled on top.. Smaller than perogies, but bigger than ravioli.. Washed down with a beer and it was a perfect lunch.. I had spied on the menu several dishes which I did not recognize so for my last dinner in Lithuania until on my way home, I figured I would go for it... I waited until I had a good hunger built up, and hiked the 2 km to the restaurant... When I got there, they were just closing! Damn.. it was only 8:00 PM. Thwarted for sure on this attempt at local food...I am hoping Latvia has more options on that front.

1252
It is common the world over to have a Welcome sign when one enters a city or town. Many towns include the incorporation date. In Canada we are used to incorporation dates of 1900, even dates as far back as the 1800's. Klaipeida's welcome sign is 1252. It opens the imagination as to what it was like here. Wars, famine, joy, death, natural disasters...

Suburbs
It is interesting to visit these cities. The main core of the cities is always relatively small. As one moves away from the core, The cityscape is predominantly 5 story walk up apartment buildings. The older ones seem to have a bit of style and architecture to them. The newer buildings, post WW II have an industrial look to them. Shoddier construction, grey drab, square boxes. Many have balconies on them but most of the balconies are in a sad state of disrepair. I am not sure I would venture out onto the decks of most of them. When one leaves the city, there are many pockets of suburbs. The houses here are all new, say within the last 10 years. To be honest they look identical to suburbs in anywhereville North America. In a way it is a shame to see the very livable core of the cities to give way to the desire to live in the suburbs with two car garages, and no real neighbourhood feel. Walking is not part of the game here. One must have a vehicle as nothing, not even convenience stores are within walking distance of these homes.. They are plopped down in the middle of farmers fields with no amenities close by. It is almost as if the locals have blindly thrown themselves into 21st century America, with nary a thought as to what it does to their culture... Yet in other regards they fight so hard to maintain their culture and language.

Cobbled together.
The streets here can be divided into two types. The main arteries around town are wide and paved just like anywhere else. The side streets are mostly cobblestone, built god knows when. Most of the cobblestones are made out of cut and split granite about 4 inches by 10 inches.. It appears where repairs have had to be effected that they no longer can afford to replace the rectangular cobblestone when they finish the repairs. Instead they have elected to use just round field stones, leaving a very rough surface, compared to the flat top cobblestones.. Talk about hard on suspensions and hard to walk on. It appears that municipal governments worldwide are having troubles making ends meet.

The Homeland
Well, I am finally here. The homeland. It is with a moderate sense of apprehension and a certain calm. The day is heaviy overcast and drizzling rain. Surprise surprise.. Under the European Union the border is now non existent. We cruised through the defunct border between Lithuania and Latvia without even stopping.. I had been wondering what was used to define to border between Latvia and Lithuania. Apparently it is a row of low pine forested hills with little or no population. Once through the first ten miles of bush, the land slowly gave way to flat lowlands. By flat, I mean flat, and lowlands means lowlands. We have had a lot of rain here, and most fields are sitting under water. One can see where the farmers have been on the fields lately, and left deep ruts. The mud itself kind of looks like gumbo... Definitely more of a clay type soil than a sandy soil. We have yet to pass what would appear to be a prosperous farm but that is always hard to tell. Most buildings look old.. It is hard to judge the exact age, but I would guess in the last 50-75 years. Occassionally we pass an old farm yard with brick and stone buildings. Sometimes in good shape, sometimes in very poor shape. I guess not surprisingly wind generators are frequent sights in farmer's fields. Not banks of them, but just individual generators standing proud on their own.

The little villages that we pass by are indeed villages. I am guessing populations in only the 100's. I am having my doubts that there will be accomodations available in many of them. I am hoping that any relatives that I find live in larger centers....


Stick to your ribs...
I just finished a most interesting new comfort food.. The menu described it as pancakes with minced chicken covered with Holland cheese..... I figured I would give it a flier and see what I thought.. It was served in little ceramic oblong bowl. In the bottom was a layer of finely minced and spiced chickent. Above that was a layer of pancakes, sort of. The pancakes had been fried up on grill or pan but were very very thin.. About the thickness of pasta. The Pancake was nicely browned.. It must have been fairly large. They then rolled up the pancake and cut it into 3/4 inch strips and unrolled them into the bowl above the minced chicken. Next the layer of “Holland” cheese.. Whatever that is, but it was a very healthy layer.. Then the whole thing was put in an oven until the cheese melted. They then decorated it with thin dribbles of mayo criss crossing the top. The bottom line is that it was kind of like a one person lasagna, except that instead of using pasta, they used cooked pancakes cut in strips. And damn was it good.. It would definitely fall into comfort food territory.. A good thing on a chilley day.. They call it “Krasni cepta pankuku pannina ar vistas galu” I think I would shorten that name... Here is the menu description as per how they translated it into English.
Cooked in stove pancake griddle filled with chicken. Thin pancakes, minced chicken, cheese “Holland”, mayonaisse, and greens.


First impressions...
Well I have landed in Latvia. Lets say I have surfaced here. Kind of coming in on a secondary road from the south. Leipeja ( Pronounced lea-pa-yah). The bus station is combined with the train station. There is no train service to Lithuania, but there is train service to Riga. My first objective, try and get my bearings.. My guide book tells me that the train station is about a kilometer from downtown. Normally these types of stations have a plethora of taxis hanging around. My luck, not a taxi in sight . Several street cars (yes on rails) came and went, but I have learned in the past not to get on these things as it is too easy to end up on the wrong side of nowhere. Hell, only a kilometer, I will walk. As I get out of the train station there are three possible streets all terminating in a bit of a traffic circle. Hmmmm Eeenie Meenie Minee Mo.. Which one to choose? I remember passing over a river and canal on the bus, so I elected to take the road to the north. I asked several individuals along the way, but nary a one of them spoke English. Actually one of them did speak a little... When I asked which way to downtown, he pointed his arm in a direction and off I trundled... The neighbourhood deteriorated more and more. The sidewalk deteriorated from granite walking stones to pavement, to gravel and then down to mud. I was getting the picture.. Either he had no idea what I was asking, or he is rolling over on the ground about how he spoofed me.. I think it is the former. Well after a walk of several miles through very old suburbs that deteriorated to industrial wasteland, I figured I had taken the wrong road.. Back track to the train. By now the skies have opened up and it is pissing down rain. I decide that it is a good thing to let go of that boy thing and ask directions from the locals as to which way was downtown. In all this escapade I probably approached a dozen people and asked them if they spoke English or if I could try and communicate by grunts and moans as to where the hell is downtown.......When I decided to head back to the train station, I figured, ok, I will just wait for a taxi to show up and I will take the taxi into town. Half an hour of waiting and no taxi.. Hell, I would have been happy to take a taksi! LOL When all that failed, I figured, ok, it is still early afternoon... I will venture out on one of the other roads. I got lucky this time... I could see the bridge across the canal after walking about ten minutes. Once I crossed the canal, I knew I could use the map in my guidebook. Yippeee!

Some comments on the town are probably appropriate.here. By architectural standards, I would say that this reminds me of Red Lake Ontario. A lot of older wooden houses.. The brick and stone houses that dominate Poland and Lithuania seem to have given way to wood frame. And they all need paint... real bad. The institutional and industrial buildings cannot be mentioned in the same sentence as the word architecture. Red brick monoliths that have nothing to say except perhaps “Soviet Regime”, And then there are the churches.. Monster churches, that I would guess were built in the 18th century. Most of them in a reasonably good state of repair. The convents and side buildings all seem to be in good shape and the yards are well maintained.. What is staggering, is the number of them. I walked past four of them in my walk. From any one of the four that I passed, I could look and see two more of these huge churches. Yikes.. God must live close to the ground here.